Monday, February 28, 2011

sent off the I-797C today! it goes first to richmond, then to DC to the US Dept of State and then the Chinese Embassy - then off to our agency, CCAI to be translated. finally, by next week, we are hoping it will be on it's way to CHINA with the rest of our dossier...

fingers crossed that march is a good month for our paperwork and this process...

Friday, February 25, 2011

our I-800A (I-797C) pre-approval has arrived!!!!! we have it in hand!!!!! can't go to richmond tomorrow, so it will have to wait until next week and as it takes richmond all day to certify a document now, i'm going to have to mail it. :( there's a five day turn around on mailed docs... still, at this point, it can't be helped. just glad to have it at all!!!!! :)

last week we received information that our I-800A Pre-Approval was complete and on it way to us. we have yet to see it, though. :) once it arrives, some craziness begins with the sealing process, but then another waiting period. so, we are yet another step closer to ben!! still thinking it will be july before we are able to travel, but at least it's not being pushed back further than that. :)

Friday, February 18, 2011

had a bit of a set back yesterday (or the day before?? i've lost track). called the uscis (united states citizenship and immigration services) to check on the progress of our I-800A (I-797C). discovered that walking in for early fingerprinting was not necessary as our case is still sitting in a pile, yet to be touched. there is a huge backup of paperwork, apparently from raising rates back in november. when folks heard there would be a rate hike, many rushed their home studies to completion to beat the increase. uscis was swamped. they are still catching up.

we are looking at (best case scenario) 90 days from lockbox (dec 23, 2010) to I-800A pre-approval (I-797C), so right around march 23, 2011 we should be receiving our I-797C. from there, we will get it sealed and send it to the agency and our dossier will be complete. they will translate the entire dossier and ship it to china. so maybe two weeks after march 23, we will be logged in at china. that would give us an LID (log-in-date) of roughly april 7th or so. a very disappointing date, as we had hoped to be logged in back in early feb! we were dreaming. we are newbies to this stupid hague process, unfortunately. :(

also, learned yesterday that travel to china is currently projected at anywhere from 3-6 months AFTER LID. folks, that means, assuming a second week of april LID, we might be going to china in july, august or september! i will be so sad if we miss his second birthday. of course, i will be extremely grateful to be on the road to china REGARDLESS of when we travel, but had hoped this process would not take quite that long...

still, the day will come that we meet our dear ning yuan and, well, turn his life upside down! and then hopefully, give him a great future with a loving family and a welcoming home. :) one day at a time.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Friday, February 4, 2011

tiny baby olives had her second birthday yesterday. seems like the time has gone by so fast! seems like this adoption is taking forever... funny how time is like that.

we were finally able to walk in early and get fingerprinted at the USCIS near dc today. three hours round trip because we had to drop jim off at work on the way back, but it's done and we will never have to do that again! i hate alexandria. well, i hate the traffic, really, not actually the place.

it was an easy morning at the fingerprint office, though. no one was there, we walked in, sat for a few minutes, had our fingers scanned (no ink anymore!) and were done. i don't know if we were there for even 15 minutes. we've waited hours at that place in the past. a nice visit for a change.

and, i have to admit, an interesting place, too. i'd love to work there (if there was no traffic to deal with during the commute! HA!) just to see all the people and where they are from and hear their stories. fascinating. i'd be a passport officer, too. same reason. to meet people from all over the world, get paid to do it, and not have to fly anywhere! wonderful job. although, not all of them think so, of course. i'm sure a very frustrating job, too, actually.

but, i digress... so now we wait 2 to 4 weeks for the I-800 Pre-Approval letter to arrive and then something else happens... so many new steps. i'm not sure what we do then, but i think we take that letter and notarize, certify, authenticate, authenticate and send it off to the agency who then finalizes our dossier, translates it and sends it off to china (CCAA). at that point we get a log-in-date (LID) and then back to waiting.

so, one more step done. :)

we also sent a chinese new year gift to ben through the help of a special organization that sends things to the swi for adoptive parents. i have received photos of the gifts they included in ben's package. they are posted above. we'll see if we get back any photos of ben enjoying his holiday gifts...

my password protected blog:

our timeline to benjamin

home study is complete and agency approved!!!: december 21, 2010 (a VERY happy solstice!!!!!)

HS and I-800a application and fees sent to USCIS today!!!: december 22, 2010

documents rescued from authentication at state dept and sent to chinese embassy in d.c.: december 30, 2010

documents arrive back home: january 7, 2011

dossier compiled and mailed nearly complete to ccai: january 8, 2011

have all the documents to build our dossier (except I-797 from USCIS - that will be last.)

received our federal fingerprint appointments in the mail january 22, 2011! appointment is set for february 14th. happy valentine's day! closer to our approved I-800A! (797C).

received our I-797C (I-800A pre-approval)!!!: february 25, 2011. (it was approved on feb 18 then mailed to us.)

I-797C is sealed and on it's way to our agency in colorado!!: march 3, 2011

WE ARE DTC!!! OUR DOSSIER HAS GONE TO CHINA. march 4, 2011.

our dossier has been delivered to the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) march 7, 2011 (our 18th wedding anniversary!)

WE ARE LOGGED IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!march 14, 2011.

LOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE HAVE A SON! :)april 14, 2011.

ccai mailed off our I-800 on april 18th. it will take approximately four weeks to get our provisional approval (PA) on this document.

I-800 PA!!!!! TWO WEEKS EARLY!!!! april 28th! it arrived here today, may 1, 2011!!! so completely unexpected! this means we could potentially travel in early july and be home by august!!!

may 10: WE ARE CABLED! the National Benefits Center (NBC) has forwarded our documents to the National Visa Center (NVC)! two and a half weeks from NVC receiving our file, we will get Article 5, which will be sent to beijing and then 2 - 4 weeks after that, our Travel Approval will be issued!

may 25: ARTICLE FIVE!!!!! 2 to 4 weeks until Travel Approval!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we will be traveling in july!!!!

june 22: grant's birthday and TRAVEL APPROVAL!!!!! we will have our Consulate Appointment approved either tomorrow or friday and then will make our flight plans! we should be on a plane on july 6, 7 or 8!!!!!!! watch out, little ben! here we come!!!!